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Friday, December 28, 2012

Miniature frost heave of the ground with respect to a small rock,hiking pole for scale.

A second, slightly larger example of frost heaving.

On that same, most recent hike up the bottom of Water Canyon, as reported on here and here, I noticed these mini-examples of frost heaving. The ground on the road or trail through the icy, shaded part of the canyon became saturated during the rain and snow of mid-December; it then froze, causing the ground to lift or rise above some of the larger of the scattered float rocks along the trail. The smaller rocks have been raised up with the ground, rather than appearing to sink.